Yesterday the Foreign Affairs Committee of the Riigikogu (Parliament of Estonia) started the visit to the headquarters of the United Nations in New York. The visit will last until the end of this week.

Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee Sven Mikser said that the visit will focus on humanitarian, development cooperation, migration and peacekeeping issues in various crisis areas in different regions of the world, and on the activities of the UN in these spheres.

Yesterday the delegation of the Foreign Affairs Committee met with UN Under-Secretary-General for Peacekeeping Operations Hervé Ladsous and UN Assistant Secretary General for Human Rights Ivan Šimonović.

Ladsous thanked Estonia for its contribution to the UN peacekeeping missions. At the moment, Estonia is participating in three missions – in the Middle East, Mali and Lebanon. The opportunities to renew peacekeeping and the possibilities for taking into use new capabilities for better ensuring of security were also discussed at the meeting.

The situation in Ukraine and Syria and the effects of the migration crisis were spoken about at the meeting with the representatives of the UNDP. The representatives of the UNDP emphasised that, in many regions, only the UN as a neutral organisation can take action.

Šimonović pointed out that cooperation and cohesion between different organisations of the UN is of great importance because the protection of human rights is not an issue in itself but concerns all fields of life.

The delegation also meets with UN Under-Secretary-General for Management Yukio Takasu and Director of the UN Security Council Affairs Division Movses Abelian. It is planned to have meetings with the representatives of the UN Development Programme and UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs as well.

Meetings with UN Assistant Secretary-General for Policy Coordination and Inter-Agency Affairs in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs Thomas Gass and Director of UNICEF’s Public Partnerships Division Olav Kjørven will also take place within the framework of the visit.

Cooperation agreement with President of the International Peace Institute (IPI) Terje Rød-Larsen will be signed at the Permanent Mission of Estonia.

Besides the Chairman, members of the Foreign Affairs Committee Henn Põlluaas, Juhan Parts, Keit Pentus-Rosimannus and Eerik-Niiles Kross also take part in the visit.

Riigikogu Press Service
Epp-Mare Kukemelk
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